Thursday, February 20, 2014

David Ranta spent 23 long years behind bars after being convicted of murder. It was later determined that a rogue New York City detective likely framed him by coercing witnesses and allegedly manufacturing a confession.

The overwhelming evidence facing the city of New York resulted in officials approving a $6.4 million settlement before Ranta even filed a civil rights lawsuit, attorneys announced on Thursday.

“A $150 million claim filed last year by the man, David Ranta, was settled by the city comptroller’s office without ever involving the city’s legal department – which the lawyers involved in the negotiations described as a ‘groundbreaking’ decision that acknowledged the overwhelming evidence the city faced,”the New York Times reports.

As the stacks of papers grow in convenience stores ON THE FLOOR, one only has to look at the past two weeks and again on today's front page. OK Daily Times, we get it. You don't like Senator Rich Colburn. For the past TWO WEEKS, each and every day the Daily Times continues to bring up Mr. Colburn and his Wife getting a divorce. Kick them when they're down. No, don't talk about his PERFORMANCE ON THE JOB over nearly three decades. Instead, get into his personal life in the hopes of getting a GOOD SENATOR for the Eastern Shore out of Office.There was a time when the Main Stream Media would RESPECT the personal lives and concentrate on performance on the job. Now, the Daily Times will use ANYTHING to get a REPUBLICAN out of Office. The abuse in this case is proven based on just how many days and articles they have written over the past two weeks. The funny part is, the stacks of papers still remain on the floor in the stores. Maybe next week we'll see seven year old kids standing on street corners yelling, RICH COLBURN GETS LAID, READ ALL ABOUT IT. I wonder what the Daily Times would say if Rich says, "I did not have sex with that woman"??????

A few weeks before Season 2 of “House of Cards” debuted online, the show’s production company sent Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley a letter with this warning: Give us millions more dollars in tax credits, or we will “break down our stage, sets and offices and set up in another state.”

A similar letter went to the speaker of the House of Delegates, Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel), whose wife, Cynthia, briefly appeared in an episode of the Netflix series about an unscrupulous politician — played by Kevin Spacey — who manipulates, threatens and kills to achieve revenge and power.

Now that we have the full history of foreign Treasury purchases in 2013, we know the following: in December 2012 total US paper held by foreigners was $5,573.8 billion; one year later it rose to $5.794.9 billion or a $221 billion increase. So how does this look in the context of QE? In the past year, courtesy of the Fed's $1 trillion in TSY and MBS purchases, Ben Bernanke purchases some $552 billion in Treasurys, or about 150% more than all foreigners combined! Suddenly the need for MyRA is becoming all too clear...

with all do respect Joe.Please explain to your followers WHY businesses or the public follow through with your suggestions or city/county governments establish new policy/procedures at YOUR urging or DEMANDING. I dont think you can answer that question with any amount of honesty.

Your blog how NO BEARING on how any establishment is run in Wicomico County or the City of Salisbury. Sure you have a tremendous amount of page view but it is only for those of us that are watching the train wreck in progress. Nothing more.

Publishers Response:

I love it when comments come in like this. Let's see now. First of all, I exposed how non business friendly the City was and how difficult it is to get through the permit process alone. Jim Ireton immediately changed those departments in order to make that process easier.

I created a plan for Downtown, funny how ALL of that is now coming into place. Not anywhere near as professionally planned, but it's happening. I stated there is NO trash for Downtown residents, now they are building it.

As for businesses following my suggestions, I've never told any business how to run their business, nor have I demanded anything of the sort. I/We have exposed just how bad the City and County are and have been job and business wise and I expressed what "I" would do to correct that if I had been elected. Our figures turned out to be exactly correct and now the County is in a $3.5 million deficit, just as we had predicted.

Now, I happen to think it's hilarious how afraid Jim Ireton and Rick Pollitt are of following my direction business/industry wise because it's Joe Albero's ideas. Because of such, they will continue to fail and that is unfortunate.

Now, as for the "train wreck", Good Lord, you people have been saying that for TEN years now. Don't you think you've warn that out? I've been sued and I've won every case. The train wreck was those who sued me and fair and honorable Judges ruled in my favor. Each of us disagreed and felt it needed to be decided by someone with the proper wisdom to settle our differences, in case you hadn't noticed.

Take away the electronic voting machines and I think the public will finally get the right person in Office.

The Federal Communications Commission is about to launch a direct assault on the freedom of media to cover news as it chooses. The program, called the Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs involves requesting information from all radio and television stations — and newspapers — about how they cover news, who decides what gets covered, and what criteria they use in the decision. The FCC will also conduct a “content analysis” of one week’s coverage to decide whether each of eight “critical” categories of news are being given adequate attention.

While the results of the study will not impose mandatory changes on the media’s news decisions, the recommendations of the FCC will carry the weight of law since all radio and television stations must come up for license renewals every eight years. Newspapers — which are clearly outside the jurisdiction of the FCC — are under no such constraint, but will be evaluated anyway.

The study is in response to another study, this one conducted by the Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism at the University of Southern California, which found that minorities were not being adequately served by media news and that critical areas were being underreported.

No surprise, the “critical areas” include such liberal topics as the environment and economic opportunity.

Question: If Obamacare officials cannot prevent accused embezzlers from infiltrating their offices, how can they protect enrollees from grifters, con artists and thieves in the federal health insurance exchange system?

Here in my home state, a director of Connect for Health Colorado — the state-sponsored Obamacare health insurance exchange — was just put on administrative leave. No, Christa Ann McClure did not go on leave over the chronic problems plaguing the cursed Connect for Health website. She’s on leave because she has been indicted for filching funds from her last employer in Montana.

No, the guardians of Obamacare didn’t smoke her out on their own. McClure ‘fessed up only after the local Billings (Mont.) Gazette newspaper reported on the charges against her. She was indicted by a grand jury on Jan. 16. But her current state government employers did not find out until last week, when McClure finally informed them because the press had published the indictment.

ANNAPOLIS – Maryland could become the fourth state in the nation to establish a Seal of Biliteracy Program, which would recognize public high school graduates who demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English.

Students would have to demonstrate proficiency in not only speaking, but also reading and writing in one or more languages other than English – including American Sign Language – according to a measure pending in the State House.

“In the 21st century, we want a school system that recognizes the importance of languages and cultures as globalization increases,” said Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez, D-Montgomery, who sponsors the bill.

For a second straight week, Democrats find themselves explaining why it’s a good thing for fewer Americans to be employed. Last week, it was a Congressional Budget Office report that said millions would leave the U.S. workforce in order to obtain ObamaCare benefits. This week, the CBO says that the centerpiece of the Obama Democrats midterm campaign pitch, a call to increase the federal minimum wage by 40 percent, will cost as many as 1 million jobs. Democrats aren’t much disputing the finding from the nonpartisan green-eyeshade brigade, but are instead trying to explain why less work is a good thing. Again. The argument is that while those low-wage jobs would be wiped out, the enhanced incomes of those still working will pay dividends in the years to come. It’s a similar argument as last week’s: Fewer people will work, but their being “freed” from unsatisfying employment will create new opportunities and raise overall living standards.

National Democrats and liberal activists are taking enormous legal and political risks with the lawless activities in Texas caught on the Project Veritas tapes. But they see Texas as such a strategic prize that they believe it’s worth that risk, and that victory must be achieved at any cost.

When registering voters, Texas law makes it illegal for a volunteer registrar to “transcribe, copy, or otherwise record a telephone number furnished on a registration application.” It specifically provides that you cannot copy the name, address, or phone number.

WASHINGTON—The Energy Department plans to grant final approval this week of $6.5 billion in loan guarantees for two nuclear reactors under construction in Georgia by a consortium led by Southern Co.

The money is part of an $8.3 billion package of loan guarantees that the federal government conditionally approved in 2010. The reactors won regulatory approval in 2012—the first nuclear power plants to clear the approval process since 1978, a year before the accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz plans to announce the loan deal at a speech at the National Press Club in Washington on Wednesday....

First-time home buyers accounted for only a third of the homes purchased over the last year. The below-average number is thanks in part to American’s growing student loan debt. With high monthly payments and increased credit risk, student loan debt is keeping some first-time home buyers from entering the housing market; a trend that doesn’t appear to be turning around anytime soon.

Officials with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau say rising student debt, along with its implications on the housing market, could prove to be one of the most painful aftershocks of the Great Recession, the Washington Post reports.

Raise your hand if you can sink a three-point shot. Okay, fine, I get it, you’re all great at basketball. Now raise your hand if you could do it with your eyes closed. Not so hot now, are we? That’s what makes it so awesomely remarkable and cool that a blind man hit a three-point shot during halftime of a college basketball game — winning him free McDonald’s for a year.

In a video that’s lighting up the Internet recently, fans at a College of the Ozarks basketball game go absolutely crazy when 54-year-old Michael hits the three-point shot perfectly, without being able to actually see the basket.

As if that wasn’t impressive enough, KSPR-TV has a follow-up story that shows just how many setbacks he’s had to deal with, and how he’s triumphing over all those obstacles.

Maryland’s superintendent of schools told lawmakers Wednesday that she supports legislation that would delay evaluating teachers on new Common Core student assessments for two years until the 2016-2017 school year.

Maryland was supposed to have fully implemented the curriculum based on Common Core standards this school year. Part of the standards requires annual teacher evaluations to be based on standardized student test scores.

But teachers, parents and legislators argue that schools haven’t had adequate time to adjust to the program, which is still underway. Legislation introduced by Sen. Nancy King, D-Montgomery, a former school board member, would give teachers a reprieve until 2016.

(Reuters) - A plunge in U.S. homebuilder confidence reported on Tuesday reflects a range of problems facing the constructionindustry seven years after the housing crash, challenges that go deeper than the severe winter weather blamed for much of the gloom.

The National Association of Home Builders said on Tuesday that builder confidence dropped 10 points between January and February, from 56 to 46, the largest drop since the survey began in 1985. Readings below 50 mean more builders view market conditions as poor than favorable.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A report by Congress' nonpartisan budget analysts seems to have thrown Democrats onto the defensive after it concluded that the party's drive to boost the federal minimum wage could cost a half-million jobs by 2016.

A Congressional Budget Office report released Tuesday concluded that a gradual increase to $10.10 hourly by that year — which is what President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are seeking — would increase pay for more than 16.5 million people, mostly those earning low wages. It also would lift 900,000 people over the federal poverty threshold, the study said.

It’s no surprise that waterfront property can be particularly prone to flooding. From the disasters of Katrina, Ike, and Sandy to the more everyday risks, building next to the water means you run a risk of finding that water in your living room one day.

That’s why flood insurance exists. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) provides that insurance, and they use FEMA’s flood risk maps to set their rates. You might guess that those FEMA maps would say that a low-lying beachfront luxury condo development in an area that’s flooded several times before would be considered high-risk. And yet as NBC News reports, you’d be wrong.

The White House today issued a response to a petition asking the Obama administration to intervene with the FCC to preserve net neutrality. Although the response “reaffirms” and “strongly supports” the administration’s commitment to net neutrality, that support does not extend to telling the FCC what to do.

The petition, which received over 105,000 signatures, asks the Obama administration specifically to intervene in the cause of net neutrality by directing the FCC to reclassify broadband ISPs as common carriers.

Several consumer advocates have called on the FCC to act through reclassification, including former FCC commissioner Michael Copps. Calling broadband ISPs common carriers would require them to treat all traffic equally, but making such a change would bean uphill battle for the agency, which would face political and business opposition.

The past 5 weeks have seen mortgage applications crumble a further 16% - their biggest such drop in 14 months as the index for home purchase applications hovers close to its lowest level since 1995. Non-seasonally-adjusted, this is the worst start to a year in over a decade. Must be the weather?

For Maryland’s leaders who have often wondered aloud why other states point to us and snicker behind their hands, we have two words for you:

Chicken tax.

Seriously. Really, we’re not kidding here.

OK, the real name is the Poultry Fair Share Act, which lasted all of 30 seconds before being redubbed (the same as happened last year with the “rain tax” er, we mean the “Watershed Protection and Restoration Program”). Apparently, though, advocates counted their chickens before they were hatched.

The legislation intended to levy a 5-cent-per-chicken tax on poultry companies, the resulting $15 million a year to go to Chesapeake Bay cleanup. At issue is the amount of phosphorus in poop produced by the poultry industry.

Washington, D.C.—Congressman Andy Harris is pleased to announce the 2014 Congressional Art Competition. Each spring, the House of Representatives sponsors the competition to recognize the artistic talents of high school students in each congressional district throughout the country.

The competition is open to all high school students from Maryland’s First Congressional District. Each congressional district will select one winner and that student will have the opportunity to display his or her artwork for one year in the U.S. Capitol building, alongside the work of other contest winners from around the country.

The Energy Department will approve a $6.5 billion loan for the first new nuclear power plant built in the United States in more than three decades. Secretary Ernest Moniz is expected to mention the deal at a speech today. Tomorrow he visits the plant, now under construction in eastern Georgia. It will cost about $14 billion in all. It's scheduled to open in 2018.

The Virginia Senate passed a bill today in a 28 to 11 bipartisan vote to repeal a law that prevented hunting on private property on Sundays.

House Bill 1237 will allow those who have permission from the landowner to hunt any wild bird or animal, including nuisance species, on private property on Sundays. However, hunting cannot occur within 200 yards of a church, and it prohibits hunting deer or bear with a gun, or other weapon with the assistance of dogs on Sundays.

Once passed, the gun lobbies quickly praised the Virginia legislature for their efforts in repealing the 19th Century blue law.

As usual I am way overdue on an update! Last update was back in early January with scan results. Since then Dr. Maris and I have been trying to come up with a plan for treatment. I had wanted to go right from the trial in Boston to a T-cell trial at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, TX however they are not going to be ready for Brooke until May/June at the earliest. She will need to go on another trial in the meantime but there just isn't a lot out there. The Foundation Medicine lab that her tumor biopsy was sent to was not able to get enough genetic info from the tumor to lead us in a treatment direction. The biopsy did let us know however that there is still very active Neuroblastoma cells in the tumor and that there is 50% involvement in the bone marrow at the site of the tumor. So we knew that we needed to start treatment quickly. Dr. Maris wanted to put her in a trial involving 2 standard chemos (Cyclophosphamide & Topotecan) combined with Celebrex and a drug called DFMO. Here is more info on the study if you would like to see the details http://www.nant.org/Patients_and_Families/N12-01.php

The Navy plans to deploy an exotic new weapon this year. It's a super powerful laser officials say can shoot down drone aircraft or sink small boats. The device can be operated by one sailor. It requires a lot of electrical power, but the cost per blast is thought to be lower than that of traditional ordnance.

Next year the Navy hopes to try out another new weapon called a rail gun. It launches a projectile at supersonic speeds using magnets instead of explosives. It takes so much power no existing ship has enough. Navy officials are waiting for completion of a new, gas turbine powered destroyer. The Zumwalt is under construction at Bath Iron Works, Maine. Program manager Capt. Mike Ziv says the new weapons fundamentally change how the Navy fights.

A Minnesota man has the right to sell merchandise referring to the Homeland Security Department as the "Department of Homeland Stupidity," the federal government acknowledged in a Feb. 14 lawsuit settlement.

In 2011, DHS and the National Security Agency sent cease-and-desist letters to Zazzle, an online company that facilitates merchandising by setting up a supply chain and online storefronts for affixing custom designs to T-shirts, coffee mugs or other modern bric-a-brac.

2: It is OK for a man to cry ONLY under the following circumstances:(a) When a heroic dog dies to save its master.(b) The moment Catherine Bell (JAG) starts unbuttoning her blouse.(c) After wrecking your boss's car.

3: Any man who brings a camera to a stag night may be legallykilled and eaten by his friends.

4: If you've known a guy for more than 24 hours, his sister is off -limits forever unless you actually marry her.

5: Moaning about the brand of free beer in a buddy's fridge isforbidden. However complain at will if the temperature is unsuitable.

6: No man shall ever be required to buy a birthday present foranother man. In fact, even remembering your buddy's birthday is strictly optional.At that point, you must celebrate at a strip bar of the birthday boy'schoice.

FBI documents confirm the existence of a Texas Islamic enclave linked to terrorism.
Secret footage obtained by The Clarion Project shows female members of the Islamic group receiving paramilitary training in Islamberg.
More

The Homeland Security Department has dropped plans to obtain access to a national database of license plates. Secretary Jeh Johnson personally canceled the solicitation. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was seeking commercial software to search records kept by states on locations of millions of cars and trucks. The proposal said ICE was planning to use the license plate data in pursuit of criminal immigrants. Several privacy advocates had opposed the plan. Fourteen states are considering curbing surveillance.

"Since 2007, together we’ve cut over $9 billion in spending, shrank the executive branch to the smallest per capita levels since the 1970s, and put our state on the verge of eliminating the $1.7 billion structural deficit we inherited."

"We’ve done all this while investing record amounts in schools, which has led to the #1 rated public schools in America. We’ve invested in college affordability, and the College Board says we’ve done more than any other state to hold down the cost of college tuition. We’ve invested in public safety, and, together with law enforcement, we’ve driven down violent crime to 30 year lows."

"Our better choices have led to better results. And today, Maryland has secured its position as one of only ten states to hold the Triple AAA rating from all three rating agencies, and one of only seven states to maintain that rating through the Great Recession.”

SYNOPSIS: Officers responded for a reported stabbing at a residence on E. Cedar Lane. Upon arrival the victim was located inside of the residence with a single stab wound to the chest area. Officers learned that the incident started as an argument about money. The suspect, who is one of the victim’s brothers, was still on scene and was taken into custody without incident. Another occupant of the residence, Laron D. Mitchell, was learned to have an outstanding body attachment for child support related issues and was also arrested. The house was secured and officers obtained a Search and Seizure Warrant which led to the discovery of other evidence. The victim was treated and released from PRMC. Jeron Mitchell and Laron Mitchell were transported to WCDC and released to the custody of Central Booking. The Fruitland Police were assisted by The Maryland State Police during the initial response. Additional charges pending.